Pre Mason

I have wanted to blog about some fun activities we did before Mason joined our little family but I have had the hardest time getting the motivation to do it. It seems as if an afternoon nap trumps doing just about anything and everything now a days. But since Justin is out of town for the next 10 days, I can use my evenings to hopefully get caught up on everything. Is it me or does it seem like I only blog when Justin is gone?? I guess I just really like my evenings with him!

Ethan completed his first year of Let's Play Music and it was so fun to see them perform what they had been learning at the end of the year recital. This really is an amazing program! We have been so impressed with it! 

There are 3 teachers in our area and they combined all the kids for the recital. It was so cool to see some third year students play some of their own music that they composed on the keyboard. These students were probably only 7 or 8 years old! So impressive! Ethan played his tone bells to Are You Sleeping.

Ethan's teacher, Mrs. Jill, with her class of first years. Jill just happens to be his preschool teacher too. I served with her in our church's Young Women program. She is amazing and we will sure miss her next school year when we move!

Ethan with his certificate....

I wanted to do as many fun activities with the kiddos before the baby came and also before it got too hot outside to really do anything besides swimming, so we went to the Phoenix Zoo. They loved the zoo and still at night time when we ask Ellie what her favorite thing about the day was she says, "I went to the zoo and saw some animals!" And everytime we act just as excited as she is when she tells us all the animals she saw that day. She sure is a cutie!

Here they are with the giraffes,

and the baboons. Ethan was very concerned about what was wrong with these monkeys behinds. The best answer I could come up with is that was just the way Heavenly Father made them and I don't know why their bums are blue and red. Actually, I just looked it up and it's for mating purposes. I do believe that my answer was good enough for a 4 year old though. No need to explain that to him :)

The flamingos. We had a good discussion on why their water is so green and why some of the flamingos looked white instead of pink. I just love this inquisitive stage Ethan is in! Always full of LOTS of questions.

He is also really into me taking pictures of him and always informs me of when I should take his picture. I don't mind since I need a reminder to pull out my camera every once in a while! He is quite the poser....

Ellie thought it was the coolest thing to be able to pet all the goats in the petting zoo. Have I mentioned how much of an animal lover she is?!

The zoo has a great splash pad area for the kids. Ethan was a wild man running through the fountains and sliding down the slides but Ellie was a bit apprehensive about the whole thing. She barely got wet and stayed close to me the whole time but she sure made that swimsuit look cute!

We signed Ethan up for a soccer league and it was always fun to go on Saturday mornings for his games.

He is actually pretty good! We are pretty sure that he will be athletic... we hope so anyways!

Getting a pep talk from Daddy during water break...

At the end of the game, the parents would make a tunnel for the kids to run under. Ellie always had to join the team in running through as well.

Unfortunately we missed his last game due to Mason's birth but once it gets cooler outside, we'll have to sign him up again!

Oh and here is our new house as of about a month ago...

Now the framing, plumbing, and electrical are completely done! We are bad house builders and only make it out to see the progress about once a month. Apparently the closing date keeps getting moved back so we are now hoping for the beginning of August. I just hope they can get us in there before Ethan starts kindergarten. I really don't want to drive 20 min twice a day to bring/pick him up from school !

I was so glad that I was able to do some fun activities with the kids before Mason came. Now I just feel like a lame mom who is boring my children to death with my lack of social adventure. Turns out a newborn takes up a lot of your time and usually both of my hands. The kids have been so patient with me though and have adjusted so well. I just need to get more creative with different ways to entertain them when we are home. Luckily though, we have a pretty jam packed summer with vacations and escaping the valley heat! Woohoo!